ATLANTA — The loss of Super Bowl XXXIV didn’t come close by comparison to the Titans’ loss of Blaine Bishop to a scary neck injury in the third quarter last night.

Bishop, the Titans’ seventh-year strong safety, suffered a neck injury and was lost for the game when he led with his helmet trying to tackle Rams’ tight end Ernie Conwell.

Bishop, one of the most popular players on the Titans and one of the team’s most tenacious hitters, is 5-9, 203 pounds. Conwell is 6-1, 265.

Bishop initially lay face down without movement on the Georgia Dome carpet after Conwell was brought down following a 17-yard completion.

After he was down for more than 10 minutes being carefully administered to, Bishop was put on a stretcher, immobilized and then he was carted off the field showing no apparent movement in his limbs. There was a pall over the capacity crowd, which then gave Bishop a loud ovation as he was carted off the field.

Bishop was brought to nearby Piedmont Hospital where X-rays proved to be negative. Bishop was released and returned to the stadium. He will leave Atlanta with the team tomorrow.

“Blaine had some tingling,” Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher said. “He had a little numbness in his left hand. He had all his movements and was feisty on the field. We had to hold him down as a precautionary matter. We wanted to take him for extensive X-rays. He wanted to come back and play.”

Bishop’s teammates were so worried about his injury that Fisher pulled the team aside to let his players know that, from his information, Bishop was going to be OK and “that he’d want us to pick it up and win the game for him.”

“Blaine is the heart and soul of our team,” Titans’ TE Frank Wycheck said. “Obviously, we were worried about him and praying for him.”

The loss of Bishop was crippling for the Titans, who were already without Marcus Robertson, their starting free safety. He broke a bone in his leg in last week’s AFC title game and was replaced by inexperienced Anthony Dorsett.

Bishop, who led the Titans with 113 tackles in the regular season, was replaced by second-year Perry Phenix, who had just 39 regular-season tackles.